Diaries. Volume one, 1939-1960 / Christopher Isherwood ; edited and introduced by Katherine Bucknell.

The two succeeding volumes were published under distinctive titles: The sixties: diaries, volume two: 1960-1969 (2010); Liberation: diaries, volume three: 1970-1983 (2012).

"Michael di Capua books."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"In 1939 Christopher Isherwood and W. H. Auden emigrated together to the United States. These diaries, covering the period up to 1960, describe Isherwood's search for a new life in California, where he eventually settled." "The diaries tell how Isherwood became a disciple of the Hindu monk Swami Prabhavananda; about his pacifism during World War II; about his work as a screenwriter in Hollywood and his friendships with such gifted artists and intellectuals as Garbo, Chaplin, Thomas Mann, Bertolt Brecht, Stravinsky, Aldous Huxley, Gielgud, Olivier, Richard Burton, Charles Laughton, and David O. Selznick--many of whom were emigres like himself." "Throughout this period, Isherwood continued to write novels and sustain his literary friendships--with E. M. Forster, Somerset Maugham, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, and others. He turned to his diary several times a week to record jokes and gossip, observations about his adopted country, philosophy and mystical insights. His devotion to his diary was a way of accounting for himself; he used it as both a discipline and a release. In spare, luminous prose, he also revealed his most intimate and passionate relationships, particularly with Bill Caskey and later with the very young Don Bachardy."--Jacket.